Jordan's King Pardons Sentenced Japanese Journalist - 2003-06-16

Jordan's King Abdullah has pardoned a Japanese journalist who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for the explosion of an Iraqi war souvenir that killed an airport security guard.

The king issued a decree of special clemency Monday for Hiroki Gomi, a photographer with the newspaper Mainichi Shimbun. Mr. Gomi had petitioned for the pardon, which the Jordanian Cabinet approved last week.

The photographer was convicted by a military court on June 1, one month after a small bomb in his suitcase exploded as his bags were being inspected at an airport in Amman. A security guard was killed and three other people were injured in the blast.

Mr. Gomi was returning to Tokyo by way of Jordan after covering the war in Iraq. He told the court he brought the bomb as a war souvenir, thinking it was spent and would not explode.